Reading for 02/24/06: John Willinsky,

Hi Culture Club:

Whoops! I forgot to post this week's reading on Friday. Here it is:

John Willinsky, "The Conclusion. The Well-Tempered Tongue," from The Well-Tempered Tongue: The Politics of Standard English in the High School, NY: Teachers College Press, 1988, 125-141.

You can access this on e-reserve by going to course reserves at http://oscr.gmu.edu/cgi-bin/ers/OSCRgen.cgi. Find "Spanish 490 section 001" and then my name. The password is "hola".

Discussion:

Willinsky is a professor of education at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The book is a study of attitudes on and social consequences of the teaching of "standard" English at a high school in a small community near the university. One of Willinsky's focuses is the results of sorting, or tracking students in English class according to how they read or decode text.

What are Willinsky's conclusions on the consequences of sorting on the teaching of English in the high school?

What are his comments on "gender matters," or how girls and boys become sorted, in the English classroom?

Comment on any resonance Willinsky's article has for your own experience in the English and/or Spanish classroom or in teaching the Culture Club.